Weathered
by Haydon Darescog
Summary: I never thought I would see her again. Not now." Fang sees Max again after only 3 years, and he loses his control. He has to talk to her. Now. Fang's POV, Rated for Fang swearing. This will get faxy, I promise :
1. Chapter 1

**Hello ^-^ Haydon here (anyone who can guess what name Haydon Darescog is an anagram for gets R & Rs on all their stories + beta anytime). This is a FAX. From Fang's POV. My favorite ;D** Anyway, thanks for reading this little ditty (Flames will be used as energy-efficient heating).

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I never thought he would see her again. Not now. Not for another 17 years, at least.

But there she was.

Still beautiful. Still tall and slim, with a walk that just _dared_ you to mess with her. She still rolled her eyes that same way (i.e., all the time) and that same smile -the one that screamed pride and happiness- still showed itself whenever Angel took someone out, or when Nudge made some stingy sarcastic comment (which seemed to be happening more often).

But some things had changed. Her face was now more sculpted, with higher cheekbones and fuller lips. She had also cut her hair, he noticed. It sat in slanted layers that just brushed her shoulders, with her bangs held off her face with a small red clip. The highlights and pink streaks had grown out long ago, leaving the strands a uniform milk-chocolate brown. Her clothing choice had drastically changed, too. She had left behind the ratty t-shirts and ripped up jeans in favor of simple form-fitting tank tops and mid-thigh cut-offs. Not that I was complaining.

At 18, she was now a woman. I could see it in her eyes now, as she stood several meters from me, that the past 3 years had been rough. In all of the last 72 hours that I had been in her company (although only about five minutes that she was aware of), the 15-year-old Max I had left behind had yet to show herself. The coy little smiles and drama-queen behavior were gone. Now she looked weathered, like a soldier after coming home after years on the front lines.

But that was what she was. A fighter. A warrior. She had to be. For the kids, and for herself. None of them would have survived if she had broken down, or let the pain get to her. She had to be a "rock in a sea of chaos". Jeb had told her that, right before he left, back when we lived in the E house. She hadn't understood it at the time, hadn't know that she would be forced to devote her life to saving the world, or that she would have to take care of 5 -well, 4 now- kids while she was still one herself, or that she would shot, beaten and broken more times than any of us wanted to count.

But it had happened. And in the end, even though he was a hateful, lying, evil bastard, he was right. And the last 3 years were a testament to that. After I left (I did not want to think "abandoned"), she moved on, packed up the flock, and left Arizona. They proceeded to wreak havoc on Itex and anyone who had anything to do with the school for a solid 3 years.

Which led them here, to Montana. I had been hiding here for the past 5 or 6 weeks when they had shown up for a short vacation (something about Nudge and horses), and I had literally walked into their camp by accident. Having followed them invisibly for a couple days, I had finally lost my patience. I had to talk to her. Now. So, after dinner when they all looked peaceful, I just took a deep breath and let myself become visible.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello. I am super sorry to the reviewers to whom I said "I'll update sometime today". I lied (obviously). Please don't be mad (Haydon still loves you). I made this one extra long as an apology, and I promise to be good from now on. There should be two or three more chappies on this fic so please keep reading till the end (I swear I have a good ending picked). Thank you! :) **

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_Having followed them invisibly for a couple days, I had finally lost my patience. I had to talk to her. Now. So, after dinner when they all looked peaceful, I just took a deep breath and let myself become visible. _

...Which led to the two of us standing here, staring at each other. When I had first appeared, the younger ones had freaked. Nudge had been stunned silent for a moment before she the spell broke and she screamed "Who do you think you are? Coming back her after all this time! How could you do this? How could you do this to _Max_?" Angel had started bombarding my brain with profanities while small tears leaked from the corners of her blue eyes.

Iggy had stood behind Max, one hand on her shoulder, while his blind eyes sent daggers in my (general) direction. It seemed that he had stepped up and taken my place while I had been gone, which was a surprise. I was sure that Dylan would have done the chivalrous thing and stepped up to help his "soul mate", but I hadn't seen him (and none of them had so much as mentioned him) since I found their camp.

Gazzy was not so subtle as Iggy in hiding his anger with me. He had gotten much bigger in the last 3 years. His now 12-year-old body was almost as tall as me, and he had filled out an impressive amount. When he saw me, he pushed past the others, walked right up to me, and planted a punch directly onto my nose. I felt the_ crack_ as the bone broke and the familiar feeling of warmth as the blood began to trickle down my face.

The suddenly, a harsh voice called "Gazzy!" I looked up just in time to see Max shoot him a meaningful glare, before she turned to me. Gazzy backed up slowly, never taking his eyes off mine as he retreated back to the group. Max was staring at me with a strange looking in her eyes. One I had never seen before.

She turned then, and whispered something to Iggy so quietly that I had no chance of hearing it. He nodded and made a small nondescript motion to the others, who turned at once and followed him out of the clearing where they had been staying the night. As he passed Max, Iggy brushed his index finger along the back of her hand. It was a code, one that I didn't understand. She gave him a tiny smile and a nod as they silently left.

It was just me and her then. She looked at me straight in the eyes, her pupils flicking back and forth between them. I knew that look. She was gauging my emotion, trying to extract my motives. It was the look she had used on Jeb whenever we had seen him after his betrayal.

"You said 20 years." she accused out of nowhere. I blinked. That was sudden. "Its been 3. Why." Well, so much for beating around the bush.

" I didn't mean to." I said defensively. She raised an eyebrow.

"So, what? You just walked in on us by mistake? In the middle of a forest? " _Still using sarcasm as a method of attack, eh, Max? Nice to see you've matured _I though ruefully.

I was about to answer her jibe when she suddenly stiffened. All the muscles in her body tightened at once and she let out a tiny gasp.

"Max?" I took a small step forward, but she lifted a shaking hand and gestured at me to stay where I was.

"Max? Are you ok?" What the hell was going on? What was wrong with her? Her eyebrows were knitted together in a tight line, like she was in pain. My fists clenched. I wanted to hit something. I hated not knowing what was happening to her. It was like I was away from her again, on my own, and it was hell. Not knowing for months at a time wether she was safe and alive had been the worst part of being away, and now I was here with her, and I still felt as helpless as I had then.

Her breaths were coming in slow, uneven gasps as she shook. She made a small whimper, before she clamped her hand over her mouth to stop the noise.

I wanted to cry. This was familiar, horribly familiar. It was like she was having a brain attack again, like when we were back in New York. I couldn't think about what to do, because the part of my brain that was permanently devoted to Max was yelling at me to hold on to her, help her through whatever this was, and make her better, But another part was saying, in a quieter voice, that I had given up that right 3 years ago.

Just as I was about to give in to the loud, tempting voice, Iggy suddenly burst through the trees above my head, followed closely by the rest of the flock.

"Don't touch her. It'll pass." he said in a new, commanding voice. I did as I was told, and slowly, Max's muscles began to visibly loosen up, and her hand dropped back to her side before she relaxed completely. She staggered once, and then regained her balance.

"You ok?" I asked hoarsely. It was so, _so_ hard to stand away from her after that. I had been apart from her for 3 years, and now I had to stay away from her after she just had a freaking _seizure_ in front of me. She gave a tiny smile, and tapped her temple twice. Iggy nodded and began to make a fire, while the others walked around collecting wood and setting up their sleeping bags.

"Go get your things and then come back here. You can eat with us tonight. But don't think we've forgiven you, because we haven't. And don't try anything crazy, Okay?" Nudge said quickly. She was looking away from me, like she was ashamed of something. I gave a tiny smile and a nod, and went to grab my backpack.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey, kids. I'm really sorry about this. I've been busy (lie.) This is the most spoilicious chapter so far, so be warned if you haven't read FANG.**

**Just so everyone knows, this chapter has a lot more swearing than the last ones. I suddenly realized that, wings or not, Fang is an angry teenager, and thus has a less-than-civil vocabulary. You have been warned.**

**Also, big thanks to Rue'sLullaby74 for COMMANDING me to write this chapter :) Your peer-pressure made this happen3**

I was back in 5 minutes flat. This was going better than I had anticipated, even with the punch to the face. When I came back, there was a fire going and the flock was gathered around it, roasting hotdogs. As I approached I heard Max talking. It was just something little about how she'd managed to steal a bottle of ketchup from the gas station they were at last, but I stopped. They hadn't seen me yet, so I just stood in the shadow for a moment with my eyes closed, just letting her voice wash over me. God, I'd missed her.

I stepped out after a moment and made my way toward the little family I had left behind. They all looked around at each other when I arrived, and I realized that all the space around the fire was taken. After almost a minute, Max finally spoke.

"Okay, fine. Skooch back kids." They did, and I was about to take the place between Iggy and Max when he suddenly moved towards her, forcing me to sit on his other side beside Angel. I had a sudden horrible thought. What if they were together? I mean Iggy was a good looking guy, he was smart, and he had obviously stepped up to the plate when I had left. Shit. What if...What if she loves him? What if he loves her? Shit.

Angel held out the package of hotdogs to me, and I smiled at her. She had gotten so big. She used to be Max's baby...and my baby. But now she was grown up. It had been two years, so she would be nine. I took a second to get everyone's aged figured out; Gazzy would be eleven, Nudge was fifteen, and Max and Iggy were both seventeen. I had missed so much.

As I slowly turned my hotdog over the fire, I realized that they were all looking at me. Not, like, staring. Just glancing up every now and then. I met Nudge's eye and she quickly looked down. We ate in silence for several more minutes, until I decided I had had enough of this awkwardness.

"So, Where's Dylan?" Ahh. Stupid, stupid Fang. He probably died jumping in front of a bullet for Max or something heroic like that. Although, I'm grateful to him if he did. If he saved her, or any of them when I didn't, I would be so grateful..

However, their reactions were far from sad. Angel tightened her fist around her roasting stick to the point where it snapped. Nudge let out a low sort of snarl, her lips moving back to expose her front teeth while Iggy's fists clenched and he took a deep breath, as if he was trying to calm down.

Gazzy stood up. "That asshole tried t-" he stopped suddenly, looking to Max. She was the only one of them who didn't look angry. She looked more...resigned. She was leaning back on her hands, eyes directed at the fire, a vicious little smile playing across her pink lips. "No, go on. That was a good start." she said,

So Gazzy continued. "That bastard tried to kill Max." My thankfulness was suddenly gone, replaced by anger. Cold, mindless fury. He had tried to take away my Max. That son of a bitch was going to pay.

But Gazzy wasn't done. He looked fierce, and yet desperately sad as he said "So she killed him first."

My mind stopped dead in its tracks. Images of Dylan having his wings snapped off and then pushed off a building faded away. She killed him. Part of me was proud. She had taken control and done what needed to be done, just like she always had. He was a danger to her and to the flock, just like the erasers, so she had taken care of him the same way.

But part of me was sorry (so, so sorry) that she had been forced to do it. He had seemed like prince charming; handsome, kind, willing to do anything to protect her. I had been so sure that he would support her when I wasn't there, that he would take my place as her right hand man. But he had betrayed her-just like I did. I remembered when she had thought she'd killed Ari. Even though he had been their enemy, had beaten them and broken them, it had eaten away at her. The thought that she had killed someone that she _knew_, that had a name, kept her awake at night for weeks.

I could only imagine what it had been like after she had killed Dylan. I didn't want to think about her being in that much pain because of me. If I had stayed and fought for her, I could have made him leave. Or I could have at least been there when it happened.

"When?" I choked out.

"About six months after you left." Max answered, still gazing into the fire. Her face was blank, but I could see her nails digging into her palms, and her breathing was shallow._ I'm so sorry Maximum. I left you alone in a fight against the world, and I'm sorry. I love you. Look at me. Please, look at me._

She let out a little sigh. "Hey, Guys?" the rest of the flock had been looking away from me and Max, but now they turned immediately back to her. She tapped a finger over where her heart would be, and the three younger ones nodded and stood. Nudge whispered briefly in Iggy's ear as she passed and he nodded and followed the rest of the group away into the forest.

We sat in silence, just the two of us, for about five minutes. She had her arms wrapped around her knees now, and her chin resting on them. I didn't want to be the one to break the silence, because it felt so much like old times, when we would sit together and just enjoy each other's company.

She suddenly stood the next minute, her lithe form extending to its full height as she walked into the forest, the opposite way the others had gone. I walked behind her, keeping about ten paces back, watching her weave through the trees. In the low light she looked like some mythical creature, with her wings fluttering slightly in the breeze. She looked dangerous even now, the way she held herself

showing that nothing in this forest scared her. Me being the teenage boy that I was, I couldn't help but notice how her hips swayed slightly when she walked now, how her waist had thinned out making her body curve in all the right places. She was beautiful before, but now she was downright sexy.

When we were about ten minutes away from the camp, she stopped. We were in a small clearing filled with long grass. It reached just below Max's knee as she stood looking up through the canopy at the moon. It was just a sliver tonight, so not much light permeated through the leaves onto her. The light that did formed soft patters across her hair and skin as she stood still.

"I missed you." she whispered. It was so quiet she might have been saying it to herself, but I heard it. I was so shocked that she wasn't yelling that it took me a minute to reply.

"I missed you, too."

**Hello. I know, I know. I'm a bad person. But I really didn't know how I wanted this to end. Still don't, actually. So this is what I'm asking: Do you guys want this to be a happy ending OR a "Oh-my-god-Haydon-you-are-such-an-a**" sad ending? Let me know by way of REVIEWS! :D**


	4. Chapter 4

**Ask and you will receive, huh? This is a thank you for all the good reviews :) Its not that long, but its full of **_**emotion**_** ;0 But here's the catch: One I reach 20 REVIEWS for this chapter, the next will come. I know a lot more of you read this, so that shouldn't be a problem, right? Right. **

**Also: I don't know why, but Fang seems like a believer to me. Not like, part of a specific religion, but just a belief in something bigger than him.**

**One F-bomb in here, so beware.**

**Enjoy :) **

She still wasn't looking at me. I was suddenly hit by the weight of all of this. She _didn't trust me anymore. _It felt as if for the last 2 years I hadn't really been serious about leaving_. _It was like...Even though I had written that letter, even though it had taken me weeks to build up the courage to leave, I had always thought in the back of my mind that it wasn't permanent. But to Max -and to the others- it was. I could see I'd thrown a wrench in the delicate machine that was the "post-Fang flock", and how it had unsettled them all. And now, being so close to the little family that had been (_still was) _my whole world, I was finding it hard to remember why I had left at all.

I looked up. During my little moment of reverie, the mood in our little clearing had darkened without my noticing. Max was still in the same spot she had been, but her face had clouded over.

"You shouldn't have come back." she whispered.

She was flexing her fingers, closing them into tight fists and then relaxing. Her head was down, directed at a small patch of wild flowers by her feet. She looked scared and exhausted and unsure. All the emotions she had pushed to the side while I was away -all the _weak_ emotions, as she had called them- seemed to be flooding back to her all at once, and she couldn't take it. It was hurting her, pushing her down and away from herself. And from me.

While one part of myself took time to interpret all of these signs, another completely different part was screaming at me to help her. She needed me. That part of me was clawing and biting, fighting its way to the surface. It was part worry and part possessiveness, and it made standing here after_ 2 fucking years_ and not touching her unbearable. This wasn't right. It was supposed to be me and her forever, no matter what. We were meant to be. We were soul mates. We had both relied on the knowledge that we needed each other to stay strong. She needed me, I needed her. Simple. She was supposed to trust me._ But I don't really deserve it anymore, do I? _

All at once, something came to me that should have come a long time ago. To me, I was leaving for the good of the flock, for the good of the world. I had assumed that through my letter she would understand that, that she would come to accept the fact that what I did was for all of us. But the letter also said something else, something that I hadn't meant it to. It said that I had broken my end of our unspoken deal. It said that I didn't need her anymore.

Which, of course, was a lie. Of course I needed her. Even when I was away (both times) she was still the thing that made me get up every morning. She was still the reason I did my part to stop Itex-the earth would just be a planet if Max wasn't sharing it with me, however far apart we were. She made up that fine line in my mind between "the Earth" and "the _World_". Does that make sense? I don't know. I don't really care, either. It works in my head, so it works for me.

I could see her gathering the pieces now. Picking up all the little, tiny shards of Max that littered the forest floor and forcing them back inside. Not in the right order, or pattern, just _together_. Thrown into one big pile that she could push into a dark corner of her heart and forget about for the moment.

She straightened her back, ran a hand through her hair and brushed past me, jogging back to the camp. I stayed, turning to face the wide trunk of an old oak tree beside me, and leaned my forehead against the bark. It was uncomfortable, but it made me feel somehow connected , as if this ancient being was letting me be a part of something exponentially bigger than me.

And I prayed. It reminded me of New York, when we had gone to that cathedral to rest. Max had said to blend in, so we had all sat and prayed. I hadn't really. I just sat there and listened to the other people in the towering room, trying to say if we were safe or not. But now I did. I prayed to the Earth and to the World and to anyone else who would listen to me. I prayed that things would get better. I prayed that Max would be Okay. I prayed that I would figure this mess out.


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